


I'll Be Right Beside You Dear

by FairytaleofNewDork



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: (British) School au, Comforting, F/F, Leaving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-26
Updated: 2014-06-26
Packaged: 2018-02-06 06:20:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1847614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairytaleofNewDork/pseuds/FairytaleofNewDork
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“How is it two years of my life fits so neatly in this box?”<br/>"... That's not everything. It's not."</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Be Right Beside You Dear

Skye finds Jemma in her room, sitting on her knees in the middle of her floor, surrounded by papers and personal possessions. She’s rifling through papers, with a big plastic box next to her. Skye recognises it immediately as Jemma’s subject box, housing all her folders, bits of paper, textbooks and exercise books in one neat place next to her desk; organised, unlike Skye’s school stuff which she just leaves on the floor wherever it lands.

Except the box is empty and Jemma has taken everything out of it and is organising it all over again, seemingly.

“What are you doing?” Skye asks hovering in the doorway.  Jemma looks up and smiles in greeting, but doesn’t answer, finishing off whatever she’s doing.

“Your parents let me in-“She adds offhandedly, hooking her thumb behind her whilst her eyes rove Jemma’s room. It’s more spacious than Skye’s, but that’s to be expected. Jemma’s parents are doctors. In comparison, her adoptive family can’t be expected to give her the same amount of space. Really she’s glad she has a roof over her head and people willing to get her out of the system and look after her.

Jemma doesn’t seemed concerned with her appearance, or explaining, too concerned with her task at hand. Her eyes skim quickly over the papers in each of her hands before she shuffles them back together and props them vertically in the plastic box.

Skye makes her way past her (stretching her legs to avoid stepping on all the _stuff_ orbiting Jemma) to sit herself on Jemma’s bed.

“What’s this?” Skye asks again, jutting her chin out in way of pointing at the papers and books around the other girl.

“This year and last year’s work.” Jemma says offhandedly after glancing at Skye behind her, keeping busy with her task.

Skye nods, eyebrows furrowed as if to say ‘yes, that makes sense’. She frowns more deeply when she continues, “Aaand… what are you doing with it?

“Deciding what I’m keeping.”

Skye stares at the back of Jemma’s head so sceptically it’s comical.

“You _keep_ school stuff? You don’t just burn it like everyone else?”

Jemma whirls around to face her, eyes wide.

“Of course I’m not going to _burn_ my hard work!” she says, horrified. She stares at Skye for a second, mouth open in mortification. “Do _you?”_

Skye suddenly feels uncomfortable and shrugs, avoiding Jemma’s imploring gaze. “I mean, everyone else does…”

“I’ve worked hard these last two years. I kept all my work from last year since I knew there could be some cross over into this year, but now that we’ve left, it’s time to decide what’s worth keeping.”

Skye can’t help but notice, “Yeah but Jemma, you’re keeping _all of it.”_

“Well maybe it’s all worth keeping, hmm?”

Skye rolls her eyes and flops back onto Jemma’s four-poster bed. She feels like she’s on a marshmallow, sinking into it, engulfed by the smell of Jemma. Despite the usual happiness the bed offers her, she groans. “Jemma our last exam was today, you do know that right? As in we only just left. Today. Aren’t you, you know, acting a little fast?”

“Of course not. The early bird catches the worm, as they say.”

“Not if the bird is handicapped. Or lives in the big city-“

“ _-Skye-“_

“And what would the the _worm_ be here? You put everything that was in that box _back_ in that box, just with all last year’s crap… just sooner than you doing it tomorrow? Or next week?” Jemma doesn’t answer, ignoring her and continuing to look through her stuff. Skye continues, “Shouldn’t we be out celebrating? Everyone else is celebrating. Trip Fitz and Ward all went out for drinks and here you are making more work-”

When she turns her head to look at Jemma, the girl is boring daggers into her skull. Any words she had been thinking die in her throat.

“Nevermind…” She mumbles. Jemma seems satisfied with that and goes back to sorting.

For the record she does put everything back in the plastic box. Plus last year’s stuff.

*

Skye must fall asleep in the warm comfort of Jemma’s bed, watching as Jemma reads and then reads, skimming over all the old work and books and scraps of paper and revision notes. And then promptly puts them all back in the plastic box. Clearly it’s important to her, but Skye finds it immensely boring.

She wakes up, dazed and feeling out of place and looks over to where Jemma was last. She’s still there, but there are several piles in front of her. Four different coloured, patterned lever-arch folders in front of her wardrobe, a small pile of plastic wallets, a pile of textbooks, a pile of flashcards and sheets with revision on them, and then the box, full with papers and exercise books.

She watches curiously, because Jemma doesn’t move. Her back is hunched and she appears to have finished organising all of her belongings.

“Jemma?” Skye tries, voice croaky. She rolls to the side until she’s at the very edge of Jemma’s bed.

The other girl jumps with a start, and twists so she can look at Skye.

“I thought you were asleep. I hope I didn’t wake-“

“-Jemma are you crying?” She asks, rising from her position hurriedly but not climbing off the bed.

Jemma’s usual lightly pink cheeks are a different shade, blotchy, the only evidence she isn’t as ok as she tries to appear to be. She rubs her cheeks self-consciously, though her cheeks are no longer damp, offering Skye a weak smile to ease her worries. It drops as she looks back at her organised belongings.

Skye can’t see her face when Jemma asks, voice an octave lower than usual, “How is it two years of my life fits so neatly in this box?”

Skye glances at her belongings once. Clearly this is upsetting her.

Skye hates it when Jemma is upset.

“… That’s not _everything_.” She sees Jemma’s shoulders rise and drop suddenly, her body scoffing openly even if she doesn’t. “It’s not.” Skye insists. “That’s the work yeah. But that’s not waking up at 6am every morning. And it’s not all the great free-periods we had.”

Jemma doesn’t respond, and Skye has no idea if she’s helping or putting her foot in it. She keeps trying, inching towards the edge of Jemma’s bed willing her to turn around.

“It’s not taking selfies in the sun and the rain, or any time at all. It’s not me distracting you in Sorrels class by cracking jokes and singing songs you like to get you to join in.  And him loving you for being hard working and me for being fun even if we don’t ever get work done in the actual lesson.”

When Jemma tilts her head, presumably to listen, Skye can see a hint of a smile and feels encouraged.

“What about that free when Ward broke his chair in the library? Remember? And he swapped it with Trips when he went to get stuff from the printer, and everyone _but_ Ward got kicked out because we were too busy laughing at Trips face when Ward pushed him and the chair collapsed?” She’s laughing herself at the memory but she feels a weight lift when Jemma’s smile cracks and she barks out a laugh, throwing her head back at the memory.

“Or when there was that _huge_ ass spider over the table next to ours in the study area, and everyone was screaming and no one could catch it, and Bucky kept throwing his shoe at it and missing?”

Jemma continues smiling, wide and bright, even as she rises and makes her way over to Skye. She sits herself sideways on Skye’s lap and Skye slips her arms around Jemma’s waist happily.

She continues, more subdued now as she watches Jemma, looking a lot happier than she had been. “It’s not laughing and spending time with friends. Building relationships,” she squeezes Jemma closer to her at that, Jemma ducking her head and smiling shyly, “bonding in a place that needs it for survival no matter how close you actually are to them. There is no way in God’s earth I’m gonna keep in touch with Quinn.”

Jemma laughs at that and nods in agreement. She watches Skye with love filled eyes and, since she’s already on a roll, Skye decides to continue to delve back into the last two years finding something to add.

“Remember that time you gave Ward ‘cranberry juice’ on the post-it-note game? And it was so _weird_ he couldn’t get it _?”_ Jemma grins proudly, and the faraway look in her eyes as she rolls her head back lets Skye know she’s remembering it well.  

“He couldn’t get it, but was too stubborn to give up even though he was last.” Jemma fills in herself. Skye laughs, repositioning Jemma on her lap, adjusting her grip around her waist.

“And when it was break, everyone kept trying to help him with his yes or no questions… and when he finally got it we all _yelled_ ‘yes!’ so loud!”

“Everyone stared at us like we’d all grown an extra head.”

Skye smiles and buries her head in Jemma’s shoulder. She sort of understands how Jemma feels. She’d definitely had some of the best moments of her life in that school, even though it wasn’t perfect. Even though she hated it most of the time. The schooling part was awful. If she failed her exams and had to repeat the year? She’d flat out refuse. But her friends? The great moments?

She feels the ache in her heart she imagines Jemma had looking at her school work. Skye imagines it’s probably worse for Jemma. Skye has had time to get used to leaving and change ever since she was little.

Jemma grows glum, nostalgia fading from happiness back to it’s dull ache.

“Its over.” The smaller girl says finally, resting her chin on Skye’s shoulder. They sit like that, curled up, Jemma sitting on Skye and Skye holding her close drawing patterns onto Jemma’s back with her fingertips.

“Yeah, it is.” Skye finally says, with the sort of finality that comes with defeat. It is over. They’re leaving. And the big world out there is a terrifying prospect.   

“I hate this part.” Jemma says, quietly. She tilts her head and Skye draws back to look at her. Jemma’s eyes roam her face, fingertips joining in mapping out Skye’s features, delicate index finger drifting over her brow and then nose to her lips. Skye kisses it before it continues it’s journey to her chin and her jaw. “I hate that to make something precious it’s got to be temporary. And you never realise how precious it is until it’s already gone. I hate that. I hate it because I always forget to appreciate the moments when they’re here. Life seems to just pass everyone by.”

Skye makes a thoughtful noise and sinks into the feeling of Jemma’s palm cupping under her jaw. “I think it helps a little bit. I mean, I hate school. You know I totally hate working and stressing out and failing exams.” Jemma rolls her eyes but still nods with a small smile, her other hand moving to map out Skye’s features- pads of her fingers glancing over the round of Skye’s cheeks- “But leaving? I’m not going to remember how much I hated it in the end. All I can remember is my friends, and laughing and wishing I didn’t have a goldfish brain so I could remember every single little thing. All those good times are so valuable to me. I didn’t think I’d have friends. Have good memories. I’ve hated every school I’ve ever been in but this one was bearable.” Her voice lowers to a murmur. “If time didn’t pass I wouldn’t be able to realise how precious everything was.” After a beat she adds. “How precious _you_ are.”

Jemma scoffs and shoves Skye a little at that, but the pleased smile she wears gives her away.

“I wish I could remember every moment.” Skye adds sincerely, leaning until their foreheads touch. she knows Jemma understands, even if she supplies a little sadly:

“I don’t believe that’s possible at this point in time… it would be nice to, however.”  She looks away thoughtfully and Skye gets the feeling even though she doesn’t look at them, she’s thinking about all of her things behind her. “It never gets easier, does it?”

“Probably not.” She confesses in reply. “But I know that right now in this moment that I want to be there to help you through it when it gets hard and sucks. Moving on sucks. I would know.” She tries to joke, tries to make light of it but Jemma just looks at her sadly, eyebrows furrowed over her big hazel eyes. Skye takes a breath. “Right now in this moment I love you. It’s scary but I’m in love with you and for some reason that makes this just a little bit easier. It’s different to normal. It’s not so bad. Because I’m not leaving everything behind. I’ve still got you and you’ve still got me. It’s different. ” She shrugs as she adds offhandedly “Maybe… hopefully we’ll make it work.”

And Jemma doesn’t respond at first, eyes searching Skye’s with an intensity that has never faltered since the first time they met. When she presses against her, the beginning of a long deep kiss, Skye responds instantly with a passion she didn’t realise she had. Because she’s terrified. Because they’ve left the only home they ever knew, Skye for a couple of years, and Jemma for several more, and even if it sucked to learn, the building housed their love and their friends and always will house their memories, even when it disappears from existence. It won’t ever change or adapt or grow with time. It will freeze with their memories. The future is terrifying and Skye has no idea what it will bring. Only that she wants to jump into that terrifying future holding Jemma’s hand.

When they break away, Skye watches Jemma under hooded eyes, at the light flush on her skin, how her chest rises and falls from lack of breath or excitement, Skye doesn’t know.

“Skye? Right now in this moment, I’m in love with you too.”

In any universe and time and space- that’s all Skye needs to know.

**[end.]**

**Author's Note:**

> Weh my internet screwed up the first time. *rewrites* (THIS IS PRACTICALLY A SMALL FIC IM SORRY BUT ALSO YEAH YOU DONT /HAVE/ TO READ THIS BIT IF YOU DONT WANT SO W/E)
> 
> I have never once claimed to be a good writer. Never once. Just putting that out there. Bless your heart if you bother reading anything I write. You are a persistent kind soul, even if you hate this :P 
> 
> You might be able to guess I recently left school. I packed my stuff up last week (it feels like it's been years already) and basically got a bit sad about it. Living near school sucks because I walk past it and get a bit emotional because 7 years are over. For the purpose of this story, the two years they're referring to in England can be sixth form or college (I imagine them at a sixth form though?). Since Jemma is british it is the perfect excuse for me to stick to what I know because I find the american system confusing since... not from there. Didn't want to muck something like that up or research it heavily just for something short like this~
> 
> The memories made reference to are a mild selection of my own. I could have used a lot more great ones (e.g. the time I threw a bottle at my friends as they were taking a selfie, and they caught it on camera as it flew into shot and hit my friend in the boob) but I felt like they were pretty average normal ones and didn't require TOO much explanation. Some of my memories at school are hilarious but my friends would KILL me for sharing if they ever found out. 
> 
> Yeah. Leaving school sucks. But the memories will remain as long as I am able to recall them and time will go on and it'll probably never get easier. Everything will eventually end up in a box every time I move home, even if this 'home' was school. It's important to appreciate the little things while you can. When you find your person who wants to go through the bs that is life with you, it'll be just as scary probably- but I'm sure it'll make you a little bit braver.


End file.
